You can say it is not a stick in the eye to have them go down there and face a mosque in what would have been the shadow of the tomb that their loved ones would be. Many of the victims still are not identified even by the slightest trace.

It never fails. In every thread about 9/11 and the WTC, somebody says something about how I ought to feel and pisses me off, and I find myself goaded to respond - uselessly, pointlessly. So here we go.

I received about three quarters of a cup of the cremated remains of my husband. I'm told it was mostly his maxillary arch (which I understand tends to survive fire well). The rest is just gone. Maybe it's around the site, maybe it's in Fresh Kills. But that construction site down on Church Street is not my husband's tomb. Thanks for bringing it up, though.

If I go downtown - which I don't, very often - and stand at the corner of Liberty and Church, I don't have to "face a mosque". It's a couple blocks up, on Park; I know the building pretty well. I wish it was still a Burlington Coat Factory, I used to buy all my shoes there. I do have to face a church; that neighborhood is lousy with them. I also have to face the Century 21 department store. What difference does that make? None of these institutions are impacting me directly.

The Muslims have been in this building for quite some time, you know. It's only when they started talking about making it nice, building it up, that people got their panties in a bunch. So, what, as long as they stayed invisible, kept their prayer on the down low, that was okay?

I remember the Japanese teenagers I saw in front of the site on the Church Street side, laughing and mugging for each others' cameras. That offended me. I recall the vendors and their tasteless souvenirs and t-shirts. That bugged me a little too, but I also kind of appreciated it: gotta love the NYC entrepreneurial spirit - wherever two or three are gathered together, there will a hotdog vendor be also. Should I insist that these people be removed from the site because it's supposedly sacred to me? Damn it, I grieve; but I don't own the place.

It is the impact on the folks grieving. It is unnecessary and it is just flat out inconsiderate to the point of cruelty.

... Should it be allowed? No.

One more time: don't tell me how to feel, nor generalize about how I do or should. These people have the right to do what they're doing. I believe in my country, I believe in their rights, and I would never condone the abrogation of their rights in my name.

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